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YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — Foreign and local journalists jailed for flying a drone near Myanmar’s parliament could be released from prison in early January after police dropped additional charges that carried at least three more years behind bars, their lawyers said Tuesday. Lau Hon Meng from Singapore and Mok Choy Lin from Malaysia, who were on assignment for Turkish state broadcaster TRT, were detained late October along with Myanmar journalist Aung Naing Soe and […]
by Nina Larson Agence France Presse GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The UN rights chief told AFP Monday that Myanmar clearly “planned” violent attacks on its Rohingya minority, causing a mass-exodus, and warned the crackdown could possibly amount to “genocide.” “For us, it was clear… that these operations were organized and planned,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said in an interview. “You couldn’t exclude the possibility of acts of genocide… You […]
YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — Myanmar’s army burned down dozens of Rohingya homes within days of signing a refugee repatriation deal with Bangladesh, showing the agreement was a mere “public relations stunt,” Human Rights Watch said Monday. The rights group, citing analysis of satellite imagery, said buildings in 40 villages were destroyed in October and November, increasing the total to 354 villages that had been partially or completely razed since last August. Dozens of buildings were burned the […]
YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — At least 6,700 Rohingya Muslims were killed in the first month of a Myanmar army crackdown on rebels in Rakhine state that began in late August, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said on Thursday. The figure is the highest estimated death toll yet of violence that erupted on August 25 and triggered a massive refugee crisis, sending some 655,000 Rohingya fleeing across the border to Bangladesh. The UN and US have described […]
YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — Prolonged displacement of Rohingya refugees in squalid Bangladeshi camps poses a “grave security risk,” conflict analysts ICG warned Thursday, raising the specter of militants recruiting among the displaced and launching cross-border attacks on Myanmar. Raids by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) on August 25 sparked the vicious Myanmar army response which has forced more than 620,000 Rohingya to flee Rakhine state for Bangladesh. ARSA “appears determined to regroup and remain […]
by Nina Larson Agence France Presse GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — UN member states said Tuesday that Myanmar was likely committing “crimes against humanity” against its Rohingya minority, while the UN rights chief voiced alarm over possible “elements of genocide”. Following a special session of the UN Human Rights Council, the nations overwhelmingly voted in favour of a resolution expressing grave concern over widespread abuses committed against the largely Muslim minority. Thirty-three of the council’s […]
COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh (AFP) — Rohingya are still fleeing into Bangladesh even after an agreement was signed with Myanmar to repatriate hundreds of thousands of the Muslim minority displaced along the border, officials said Monday. The arrangement struck by the neighbours on Thursday raised the prospect of at least 700,000 Rohingya Muslims living in overcrowded camps in southeastern Bangladesh being returned to Myanmar. But at least 3,000 refugees have crossed since then, the United […]
YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — Bangladesh and Myanmar have agreed to start repatriating Rohingya refugees in two months, Dhaka said Thursday, as global pressure mounts over the refugee crisis. More than 620,000 Rohingya have poured into Bangladesh since August, running from a Myanmar military crackdown that Washington said this week clearly constitutes “ethnic cleansing.” After weeks of tussling over the terms of repatriation, the two sides inked a deal in Myanmar’s capital Naypyidaw on Thursday following talks between Myanmar’s […]
YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — Myanmar’s suffocating controls over its Rohingya population amount to “apartheid”, Amnesty International said Tuesday in a probe into the root causes of a crisis that has sent 620,000 refugees fleeing to Bangladesh. Scenes of dispossessed Rohingya in Bangladeshi camps have provoked outrage around the world, as people who have escaped Rakhine state since August recount tales of murder, rape and arson at the hands of Myanmar troops. Myanmar and Bangladesh have […]
NAY PYI TAW, Myanmar (Reuters) — President U Htin Kyaw of Myanmar met with Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi on Sunday in Nay Pyi Taw and both sides pledged to further promote bilateral ties and cooperation. U Htin Kyaw asked Wang Yi to convey his greetings to President Xi Jinping and congratulated Xi on his re-election as general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC). U Htin Kyaw said that […]
YANGON, Myanmar (AFP) — Rohingya refugees cannot return to Rakhine state until “real Myanmar citizens” are ready to accept them, the country’s army chief said Thursday, casting doubt over government pledges to begin repatriating the persecuted Muslim minority. More than 600,000 Rohingya are languishing in Bangladeshi refugee camps after fleeing a brutal Myanmar army campaign launched in late August. The UN says the scorched-earth operation, which has left hundreds of villages burned to ash in […]
NAYPYIDAW, Myanmar (AFP) — Washington’s top diplomat arrived in Myanmar Wednesday to press civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the country’s powerful army chief over violence-torn Rakhine state, where troops are accused of atrocities against Rohingya Muslims. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s one-day stop in the capital Naypyidaw comes as global outrage builds over an army crackdown that has driven more than 600,000 Rohingya out of the mainly Buddhist country since late August. While […]
